Store Items Not Staying Installed

Bloodrayne2452 · January 2013

I guess this is the best place to ask. I tried solving this problem myself by looking up old threads, but none of them have seemed to help, or a lot of them didn't get answered. Since I got Seasons back in what, November I believe it came out, I have been having non-stop problems with my launcher. After installing Seasons, I bought some sets to go with the new items and stuff and went to download and install them. This is where the problem comes in. None of the sets and items stayed installed. It would download, I would click 'install' it would appear to install and I would go about playing my game. Then I realized that every time I closed and reopened the launcher, the sets I bought after installing Seasons would appear to not be installed. So basically, if I want to play and use the items in game, I would have to click on them, and re-install them each time before playing the game. But each time I did that, it would say the items were already installed, but that's not true. Had they already been installed, I would be able to play them in game without having to re-install them each time, which is what I have to do. I thought maybe it's a bad set, or a bad mod(which i have hardly any of). So I take out my entire sims 3 folder and start up the game so it can regenerate all the folders again and start downloading all my store items again. I need up taking a break because I get a new job and have tons of pages of store content stuff. I got back in yesterday and see everything okay, so far. I start downloading some more, i think everything is going okay, but then i go on it today, and it starts doing the same thing again where a few sets aren't staying 'installed'. One of them being the Lunar Lakes world which really makes me upset because I LOVE Lunar Lakes. So basically I have come to the conclusion where I have no idea what to do or why it's doing that because with the new sims 3 folder, there are no mods, no saved files or anything. I have only downloaded store items since making the new files, so I'm wondering if that's the reason why it's doing it? Bad store items? I have never had a problem with the sims game before installing Seasons and honestly, I'm wondering if I should just uninstall Seasons and hope everything goes back to normal. Has anyone ever had this problem? If so, how did you fix it because I would really like to know before I go and uninstall a game? >.<

jooliea · January 2013

Interesting. I've had the same problem with store items not staying installed and I see a few other threads talking about the same thing. It's only been very recently.

I have no solutions. I keep reinstalling to no avail.

lady_of_crow · January 2013

This might seem a bit silly, but if you load the game without reinstalling is the content in the game?

I say this because for a few months now I have found that launcher says that I have content that is not installed. Then if I try to reinstall it, it says that the content is already installed. However, even if I don't reinstall the content when I load the game it is there.

Nekovivie · January 2013

Same problem here.

Some content is installed, but other stuff is not. I install it, it says it installed, but it's not in the game.

This is store stuff, like Riverview, not third party content.

Nekovivie · January 2013

EA seems to have a solution. Maybe.

I brought up the console, chose to run without CC, and started a game. Exited out without saving immediately, then pulled up the launcher again. De-selected the option, but still had to re-install everything because it wasn't installed. Started a game, but the items weren't there.

I'm trying again, but installing a couple of items before I selecting the run without CC option. Maybe that will help? /sigh

https://help.ea.com/article/i-can-t-see-my-custom-content-items-in-game-for-the-sims-3

Nekovivie · January 2013

Nothing.

Maybe it will help one of you though.

My issue seems to be the stuff not installing at all. It says they are, but they aren't. If I exit out and pull up the console again, it says they still need to be installed. Gah.

Bloodrayne2452 · January 2013

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have an update on how it's going. So yesterday I separated my downloads folder from stuff I had downloaded and installed from the 8th on from the stuff that were downloaded and installed from December to earlier. So there was nothing in my downloads folder and the items were separated between two new folders I placed on my desktop. I did this because I had mentioned that the problem didn't start happening again till the 8th, so I thought maybe it was one of the sets. Then my friend mentioned deleting all ebc files in DCCache, all files in DCBackup and completely reinstall all Store content. I deleted all said files and put all the items from the folder I thought was okay to the downloads and installed all of them. Exited out, and reopened and everything was still there and installed. Good, now to continue to the other folder. Starting at the last folder, I basically did one at a time, starting with the big items(I did Lunar Lakes first) and going down to the smallest packaged items. As I said I did this one at a time. Very very time consuming because I had to click install for every set I added to the downloads. After installing each set/item, I would also exit the launcher and reopen it to see if it stuck, every once in a while I would also restart my computer to have extra proof. Like I said very time consuming. But I am here to tell you that I had my computer off all night with everything that I had downloaded and installed since yesterday, and it still says that everything is downloaded and installed. Now, I have to continue going through my purchase history to finish downloading all my store items. I will give an update again when I have completely finished to tell if this has completely worked. It may take awhile though because I will be doing each set separately and I have a job so not much free time. And if it works, I will explain how I was able to fix it.

Bloodrayne2452 · January 2013

lady_of_crow wrote:

This might seem a bit silly, but if you load the game without reinstalling is the content in the game?

I say this because for a few months now I have found that launcher says that I have content that is not installed. Then if I try to reinstall it, it says that the content is already installed. However, even if I don't reinstall the content when I load the game it is there.

I believe when this problem first started, I did try playing without reinstalling but the items were not there, which would explain why I started trying to figure out this long and painful process. I'm sure if it was that easy, I wouldn't of stressed so much about it. XD Thanks for that though.

Sez_Sims3 · January 2013

I'm having the exact same problem!

I have been since I downloaded Seasons and all my premium content and any sets I've purchased since Seasons are missing even when I reinstall everything

I'm at a loss as to what to do because every time I close the launcher I have to reinstall everything and it says everything is installed successfully but when I go into the game none of my premium content or recently purchased sets are there. I have no mods in my game and I have every expansion pack...I'm just stuck with what to try now

Any ideas?

Thanks Sara

Bily_jednorozec · January 2013

For me has worked this solution http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/593907.page and my game holds whole store. I have all EP-SPs, I'm on 1.47, but I have big part of my store content in packages, where was it possible.

Nekovivie · January 2013

Here....this worked for me. Bronwin is my hero.

It looks like a lot of stuff, but it's very simple. She just explains WHY stuff is happening, or why we need to do it a certain way. Chances are very good you have bad CC. Just because it worked before, even a day or so ago, does not mean it isn't bad now. It can conflict with an update or patch. So this will show you how to make sure it's not the games' fault.

Even if it doesn't help your issue, the info is good to have.

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/634456.page

Sez_Sims3 · January 2013

Neither of those have helped :-(

I have no idea what to do!!!

Nekovivie · January 2013

Well, if Bronwin's method doesn't help you, then you have a corrupt file in your install. Next step is to uninstall and reinstall, completely.

Before you do that, try Bronwin's method again. Make sure you follow every step. Uninstalling and reinstalling will take most of a day, so if you can avoid that, yay!

If it doesn't work, then you should do a full wipe. That said, go here on your computer:

(My) Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3

Copy the Sims 3 folder and paste it on your desktop.

Make sure you have your game discs or have access to the reg keys. Then uninstall everything.

I would recommend installing The Sims 3 base game alone, then downloading one or two items from the Store(that you've already paid for). See if they show up in the game. Once that's done, install all the expansion packs. IF you're using Origin, make sure it's updated before you start downloading everything.

Before you add the saved file, make sure the store stuff gets added to the game. If your game installed fine, then chances are that you have bad custom content from another site.

Sapientsimsolid · January 2013

I had this problem too until recently, how I fixed it was to take out my downloads folder, create a new empty downloads folder, then copy the msi.bin & nav.bin files to the new download folder from the old one, and take the folder that contains the files challengedata.package & passportdata.package from the old downloads folder & put it in the new one.
When I went back into the game, the items were there & have stayed in the game.
I think the game duplicates the downloaded content once its been downloaded into the msi.bin or the nav.bin & so after you download the items they aren't really needed anymore.
After that whenever I bought something new, I just downloaded them to the new downloads folder & kept the old downloads folder on my desktop.
This has worked good for me so far.

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Store Items Not Staying Installed

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